Pick One: Grades or Health?

        In the exam season during school when it seems like you are drowning in coursework, controlled assessments and revision, we all have a necessary need to take a breather and just veg out and relax. We all knew it would be hard- we listened to all the warnings and spent years being subtly prepared for the tsunami of ISAs and essays- yet it still knocked us off our feet and left us lying on the floor filled with anxiety and stress. Which is why we need those personal days even more so when we can just click pause on life with a netflix marathon and a huge duvet. But it seems as though when we do have those quiet moments, we have those voices in the back of our minds reminding us that we still have those final 1000 words to finish on that coursework. We really struggle to switch off and so it leads us to just leave the break for later and keep on working through the procrastination and to not stop until the job is done.
        So we sometimes do just keep on working due to expectations of exams and pressures of school and it can sometimes really take it's toll. Due to little sleep, constant hard work and minimal relaxing, our physical health will obviously start to suffer however some of us feel that we have no choice but to power through as the thought that taking time out and having to catch up later on is too unbearable to even consider- this only leads to further problems. It's similar with mental health too. The stress can lead to problems where your self esteem drops and you have an unbalanced mind which never shuts down. It's not deemed acceptable to ring up school and say, "Things have been getting on top of me lately and I'm currently struggling to cope and I think my mental health could be in jeopardy, can I have a personal day off school?" because then you are told that you just need to "get over it" and "stop over-reacting".
        The issue here is obvious and it's evident through how 1 in 10 students will be affected by mental illness at some point during their academic career. When should we have to choose between our grades and our health? Why should this even be a question that needs to be answered? Students today are the leaders of tomorrow and it is imperative that we don't scar them before they've even started living. 
Fozz.